Observable vs Mode Notebooks
Comparing two data science notebooks.
Observable
Mode Notebooks
Make sense of the world with data, together. Explore, visualize, and analyze data. Collaborate with the community. Learn and be inspired. Share insights with the world.
Native R & Python Notebooks. From SQL, explore your analysis using R or Python Notebooks.
Setup
Is it managed?
Fully managed (setup in minutes)
Is it managed?
Fully managed (setup in minutes)
Can you self-host?
No, you must use a managed offering
Can you self-host?
No, you must use a managed offering
Features
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Not Jupyter-compatible
Is it Jupyter compatible?
Not Jupyter-compatible
Programming languages
JS
Programming languages
SQL
R
Python
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
Connect with JS libraries (e.g. REST APIs)
Connect to databases (MySQL, Postgres)
Connect to data warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake)
Provided file storage
What kind of data sources can you connect to?
Connect to databases (MariaDB, PostgreSQL, etc.)
Connect to data warehouses (Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, etc.)
What kind of data visualization can you do?
JS data visualization (e.g. D3, Vega)
What kind of data visualization can you do?
UI for building charts
Reactivity
Full, realtime reactivity
Reactivity
No reactivity, you decide the execution order
Notebook scheduling
No notebook scheduling
Notebook scheduling
Notebook scheduling is built in
Management
Reproducability
Environments are reproducible by default
Execution is reproducible by default
Reproducability
Environments are reproducible by default
Version history
Version history is built in
Version history
No version history
Collaborative editing
Multiple editors at the same time
Collaborative editing
Multiple editors, one at a time (asynchronous)
Comments
Comment on items within a notebook
Comments
No support for comments
Notebook organization
View notebooks in a list
Notebook organization
View notebooks in a list
Licensing
License
Proprietary
License
Proprietary
Price
Free tier
Free trial (1 month)
Pay-per-user
Price
Unknown
Alternatives to Observable and Mode Notebooks
Compare Observable and Mode Notebooks with other data science notebook tools.
| Tool | Setup | Jupyter compatibility | Programming languages | Data visualization | Collaborative editing | Pricing | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observable | Fully managed | None | JS | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Mode Notebooks | Fully managed | None | SQL, R, Python | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Jupyter Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Amazon Sagemaker Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Google Colab Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Deepnote Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Hex Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Databricks Notebooks Compare with | Self-hosted or fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| DataCamp Workspace Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter, SQL | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| JupyterLab Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| CoCalc Compare with | Self-hosted or fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Open source |
| Jetbrains Datalore Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code or UI | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Kaggle Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Limited collaboration | Free | Proprietary |
| Nextjournal Compare with | Fully managed | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Realtime collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| nteract Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Query.me Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| VS Code Compare with | Self-hosted | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Querybook Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Python | Visualization UI builder | Realtime collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Zeppelin Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Python, SQL, Spark | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Husprey Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL | Visualization UI builder | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free and paid options | Proprietary |
| Pluto.jl Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Julia | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Polynote Compare with | Self-hosted | None | Scala, Python | Unknown | File-based or asynchronous collaboration | Free | Open source |
| Noteable Compare with | Unknown | Jupyter-compatible | Jupyter | Visualize with code | Unknown | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Zepl Compare with | Fully managed | Unknown | Python, R | Unknown | Realtime collaboration | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Count Compare with | Fully managed | None | SQL, Python | Visualization UI builder | Unknown | Unknown | Proprietary |